This I Believe

I believe that education can transform your life. When I was 16 years old I worked at Stop & Shop. I worked on the weekends, my parents wouldn’t let me work during school days because they wanted me to keep up with the school work. Like all the adolescents I didn’t like school that much but I didn’t hate it either. I thought that school was more like a place to have fun and play sports. Anyway, at Stop & Shop I worked as a bagger or sometimes I used to collect the carts outside. With me worked other people that weren’t my age, there were about in the 50s. They all worked very hard because they had to provide a living for their families.

Jimmy was one of the people who worked at the Stop & Shop. He had two sons, both my age. Jimmy was a very nice person. He liked me and always asked how I was doing in school. Jimmy had dropped out of high school and start working because he thought he didn’t need the education. Our manager was Jimmy’s teammate in high school. He had gone to college and graduated. The manager never did anything around the store. He always wore a nice suit and just watched people buy food and sat in his office. Jimmy was very jealous because he wanted to do his job but he couldn’t because he had dropped out of school.

One day I was very mad because I had failed a test. When I went to work I told Jimmy and he responded to me, “Study in school or you’ll be like me. I wish was your age because I could’ve changed everything!” I went home that day and I was thinking about what he said. I was thinking that if I don’t study I’ll probably end up like Jimmy who wasn’t happy with his life or if I study I will be like our manager who everyone respected and made a good living.

Since then I haven’t failed any test. I am now really into the school and I like it. Every time I don’t do good I always think of Jimmy, outside in the cold pushing those carts. I really believe that education is very important and it can transform your life. I believe that brain is like a muscle and education is an exercise for it.

Shop on Amazon and support This I Believe

We receive up to 10% of every purchase you make on Amazon through this link. So do all your shopping here and help support This I Believe!

Top 100 Essays USB Drive

This USB drive contains 100 of the top This I Believe audio broadcasts of the last ten years, plus some favorites from Edward R. Murrow's radio series of the 1950s. It's perfect for personal or classroom use! Click here to learn more.

This week’s essay

Following her grandmother’s death, Priya Chandrasekaran wondered what to do with the colorful silk saris she inherited. In deciding to make a quilt from them, Chandrasekaran believes she found a way to both honor her grandmother and create something new. Click here to read her essay.